A group trying to bring awareness to climate change has been walking across the country, including Berkshire residents Shira Wohlberg and Tony Pisano.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Shira Wohlberg cannot understand people who do not think drastic action is needed to save the environment.

And she does not have time to try. "In our training at the beginning of the [Great March for Climate Action] ... they told us, don't waste your time with deniers," Wolberg said. "They're not worth your energy." "Deniers," those who refuse to acknowledge the mounting evidence of global climate change, are not the target audience of the Great March, which

But thanks to the Clark Art Institute, a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see one of the founding documents of our freedom will be free -- if you have a child. In response to overwhelming interest to the Clark's special exhibit, "Radical Words: From Magna Carta to the Constitution," the museum is offering free admission to adults accompanied by a child on Sundays from 2 to 5 p.m. through Oct. 26. "We have had a lot of success with the Magna Carta show, especially with school groups," Clark Director of Communications Vicki Saltzman said this week. "We are actually at full capacity in terms of our

Mike Case and Mike Heffernan pose for a photo in the local Republican campaign headquarters in Pittsfield. PITTSFIELD, Mass. — With Massachusetts being a "wealthy state" Mike Heffernan says there is no reason homelessness should be increasing. Heffernan has spent 30 years in the financial industry and when he looks over the state's financials, he believes they could be a lot better. The state may be growing its tax revenue but that isn't translating into job creation, he said. As the Republican candidate for the treasurer's seat, he hopes to change that. By managing the state's finances better, Heffernan says more money could go toward

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — KJ’s Dance With Me is accepting registration for the 2014-15 school year.

Classes offered will be Pre-Ballet and Junior Jazz for the younger students, ages 4-6, with fundamentals of dance movement through mini sound and dance routines; Classical Ballet and Jazz for ages 7-14; and Classical Ballet for Teen/Adults.

Classes will be held in Williamstown under the direction of Kathy Ascevich, and will run Oct. 14 through mid-June.

Ascevich, an alumna of North Carolina School of the Arts and faculty member and graduate of the Cantarella School of Dance, has been instructing for 27 years in the northern Berkshire area. Her classes place an emphasis

Popcorn Column by Michael S. Goldberger Puppy love inserts itself into the dark and dangerous underground world of 'The Drop.'

Seething is the word that comes to mind as writer Dennis Lehane's "The Drop," about very bad doings in the underbelly of contemporary Brooklyn, unfolds. It seethes with ill will.

But what makes it even more disquieting is that, lounging at Cousin Marv's neighborhood bar, you mightn't know at first blush what illicit things happen here. You wonder, perhaps having an innocent pint or two, how often you've unwittingly sat amongst those involved in the most perfidious

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — The Clark Art Institute has been awarded a $118,737 Museums for America grant from the Institute of Museum and Library Services to digitize significant volumes from the Julius S. Held Collection of Rare Books in the Clark library.

These materials will be made available through the library's digital collections interface; the Internet Archive; the Getty Research Portal; the Massachusetts Digital Commonwealth; and the Digital Public Library of America.

Museums for America grants help museums address their key needs or challenges, enabling them to provide better service to their communities. The Clark will digitize 185 of the collection's 283 volumes and

PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Spearheaded by Barrington Stage Company and the city of Pittsfield, the 10X10 Upstreet Arts Festival is seeking submissions for the fourth annual festival, which will be held throughout the city's Upstreet Cultural District from Feb. 12-22, 2015.

Last winter's expanded 10X10 festival creatively enlivened downtown Pittsfield for 11 days from Feb. 13-23, 2014. The dynamic mix of art, dance, film, music, theatre, comedy and more drew over 4500 patrons to downtown Pittsfield to experience more than 75 performances, events and art exhibits. In 2014, more than 480 artists participated or had work featured and over 300 new works were created specifically for

The UNITY Program of the Northern Berkshire Community Coalition is pleased to announce their 2014-15 youth development programs.

UNITY’s popular and long-running Youth Leadership Program and Teen Writing Workshop will again be offered and facilitated by new staff, MCLA alumni Jessica Sweeney, and more recent MCLA graduate Adam Tobin. UNITY staff will be at high school lunches to meet students and share program information according to the following schedule: Mount Greylock, Sept. 23; McCann, Sept. 25; Drury, Sept. 26; and BArT, Sept. 30.

The Youth Leadership Program engages teenagers in developing leadership skills through creative, youth-led community service projects. Activities

Floor to ceiling windows provide natural lighting and picturesque views in the new Sawyer's reading areas.

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. — Have a seat.

Have any one of a dozen different kinds of seats at the new Sawyer Library that Williams College will dedicate on Saturday afternoon. There are benches and bean bags, high chairs and hassocks, straight back chairs and wing wingback chairs. There are yellow chairs, gray chairs, red chairs, green chairs and — this being Williams — purple chairs. And almost all of those chairs are positioned to take advantage of the natural light that floods into the college's main library. "The books don't

WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass. -- Even at tradition-rich Williams College and in the tradition-mad Ephs football program, a little change can be a good thing. And on Saturday afternoon, Williams makes its biggest change since it retired its leather helmets with the opening of Farley-Lamb Field at the renovated Weston Field athletic complex. At Wednesday's weekly luncheon of the Ephs' booster club, the talk was of Bowdoin and bathrooms. The Polar Bears have the honor of being Williams' first opponent on the new artificial turf field. While student-athletes will enjoy on-site locker rooms, fans can look forward to greater proximity to the field, a better sound

Williamstown Town Manager Peter Fohlin took some time during the CBREPC meeting Wednesday morning to praise MEMA's help in the Spruces Mobile Home Park. PITTSFIELD, Mass. — Williamstown Town Manager Peter Fohlin could only do so much in the wake of Tropical Storm Irene three years ago that destroyed the Spruces Mobile Home Park. Now in the final phase of picking up the pieces, he is thanking the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency for helping in each step. "MEMA's been great all the way through this project. It's been like clockwork with MEMA," Fohlin told the Central Berkshire Regional Emergency Planning Committee on